News Updates for the Week of December 26

1.     Light Bulb Standards Remain in Place - Congress passed a spending bill that will, among other things, defund the enforcement of the EISA light bulb standards for the 2012 fiscal year. While this means that the DOE will have no funding to enforce the standards until October 2012, the standards themselves remain in place. Efficiency standards will remain in place with a January 1, 2012 effective date (effective date refers to date of manufacture, not sales.  Retailers can still “sell through” their inventories beyond January 1st). http://lumennow.org/ 

2.     New ENERGY STAR Qualified Light Bulbs Product List - The U.S. EPA would like to inform partners and stakeholders of a new, consolidated ENERGY STAR qualified light bulb list.  This new list includes products qualified to the CFL V4.2 specification, the Integral LED Lamps V1.4 specification and self-ballasted fluorescent GU24 lamps qualified under the Residential Light Fixture V4.2 specification. The combination of all qualified light bulbs into one list provides a more useful tool for consumers and partners to easily identify all the bulbs that are currently ENERGY STAR qualified.  The excel version allows for sorting of data by any of the parameters (i.e. technology, model type, base type, color temperature) using the drop down arrow menus for each of the column headings. This new list will be updated at the beginning and middle of each month and can be accessed at www.energystar.gov/lightbulbs. 

3.     Webinar: The L Prize-Winning LED A19 Replacement—What Commercial Building Owners/Operators Can Expect in 2012 - On January 18, 2012, the U.S. DOE will host a 60-minute live webinar presenting an update on the status of LED A19 lamp options for commercial businesses, with an overview of DOE's L Prize competition and the rigorous lab, lifetime, and field testing that went into selection of the Philips Lighting winning lamp. The webinar will begin promptly at 1:00 p.m. ET and will include a 40-minute presentation followed by a 20-minute question-and-answer session with attendees. To learn more or to participate, register now.

4.     GE Lighting’s Sylvester Says LEDs May Be 80% of Market by 2020 - General Electric Co. expects most light bulbs to be replaced within a decade by light-emitting diodes that can last from a child’s birth through college.  Maryrose Sylvester said in an interview in New York, “By 2020, about 70 to 80 percent of the general lighting market is going to be enabled by LEDs.”  Siemens AG’s Osram unit and Royal Philips NA, GE’s traditional rivals, have both predicted similar growth rates as new regulations combine with declining LED prices to make the lighting systems more attractive to individual and commercial buyers.  Munich-based Siemens is expecting the market to grow to $13 billion by 2013 and rise another 44 percent by 2016. Philips, based in Amsterdam, predicted in September that 45 percent of the market will be LED-based by 2015.  12/20 Bloomberg

5.     Green Energy to Hit Roadblocks in 2012 - The signs are very difficult to ignore. On Wall Street; in Washington, DC; in states with Renewable Portfolio Standards; and just about every region of the U.S. where renewable sources of electricity and fuels have made significant inroads since 2006.  The next year, and possibly the several years after, renewable energy industries face a combination of fiscal austerity and partisan gridlock that is clamping down on clean energy deployment. Companies in the solar, wind, geothermal, energy storage, biofuels and biomass industries are girding for perhaps the toughest fight of their corporate lives. http://www.energybiz.com

6.     Cree Licenses Pioneering Remote Phosphor Patents - Cree, Inc. announces it has granted five LED lighting manufacturers licenses (Aurora Energie Corp., Horner APG, Ledzworld Technology, Vexica Technology, and Wyndsor Lighting, LLC.) to select Cree patents through its recently launched remote phosphor licensing program. By making fundamental remote phosphor patents available through license, Cree is further enabling LED lighting adoption, as Cree innovations facilitate the development of LED lights combining remote phosphor optical elements with blue LEDs.  Cree is currently in discussions with other companies to license the remote phosphor patents and aims to sign additional licensing agreements in the coming months. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Cree-Licenses-Pioneering-bw-126671934.html?x=0

7.     Commerce Department Unveils Stronger-Than-Expected Starts Data - The Commerce Department's residential construction report released Tuesday morning showed housing starts at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 685,000 -- that's 9.3% higher than the revised October estimate of 627,000 (revised from a previously released figure of 628,000). It's also the highest level of starts since April 2010. Compared with last year's near-record low, total housing starts were up 24.3%.  Single-family housing starts were up a modest 2.3%, coming in at a pace of 447,000, according to the government figures.  12/20 HCN

8.     Existing-Home Sales Increase 4.0% - Existing-home sales rose again in November and remain above a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).  The November figure came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.42 million, up 4.0% from October's pace, and up 12.2% from November 2010.  12/22 HCN

9.     Consumer Sentiment Keeps Rising - An index of consumer sentiment rose for the fourth month in a row, gaining 5.8 points and reaching its highest level since last June. The Reuters/University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index hit 69.9 points in December, and researchers pointed to falling gasoline prices, mildly better employment prospects, an uptick in the stock market and real income growth. IHS Global Insight is forecasting holiday retail sales to rise slightly less than 5.0% above last year’s sales of approximately $453 billion. 12/22  HCN

10.  Billion Dollar Green Challenge Launches -The Billion Dollar Green Challenge invites colleges, universities, and other nonprofits to invest a total of $1 billion in self-managed green revolving funds that finance energy-efficiency upgrades. Harvard, Stanford, Arizona State, and other leading universities have already committed $65 million to new energy-efficiency financing initiatives. In revolving funds, an initial sum of money is set aside to finance sustainability projects that have a quantifiable monetary savings. A portion of these returns (lowered operating costs) is returned into the fund until the project is “paid back.” The money is then reinvested in additional energy-conservation measures, theoretically funding sustainability projects in perpetuity.   http://lighting.com/billion-dollargreen-challenge/

11.  Stimulus Funding for Georgia Convenience Stores Lighting Retrofit Project - The Georgia Association of Convenience Stores (GACS) lighting retrofit fund has retrofitted more than 30 convenience store locations across the state. The group is one of four programs receiving financing from the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority (GEFA) division of Energy Resources, the DOE Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy. The GACS made lighting retrofits, including T12 to T8 interior lighting conversions, the replacement of cooler door lighting with LED lights, and the retrofitting of outdoor canopy lighting. http://www.environmentalleader.com

12.  GLOBALCON 2012 - To feature a multi-track conference program, free expo and exhibit hall workshops, and networking opportunities http://www.globalconevent.com/registration/